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Social Technographics Profile

We know that groundswell has two key ingredients: people and technology. Have you ever asked yourself WHY? Why do we participate in the world of social media? Why do we have a Facebook account? Why do we watch YouTube videos? Why do we create blogs?

The answer is simply based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Our need to belong. Our need to not be alone. Our need to be validated and loved. Our need to create and maintain relationships with friends and family. Our need to be creative and spontaneous and individualists. These needs motivate us to be a part of the groundswell.

The activities that we participate in online and our involvement can be classified. We call this classification Social Technographics. If you look at the ladder above, you will see that we can be grouped into seven profiles: creators, conversationalists, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, and inactives.

Why should we care about this? Well..if you want to know what your customers are doing and not doing online, this little tool is invaluable. For example, if you are trying to target consumers thinking that they love to blog, you would be assuming that they are creators. If they are spectators, however, the way that you reach them will be entirely different.

Look up Forrester’s Technographic Profile to find out more about your customers and what their activities are. Alternatively, you can survey your customers on your website by asking them what technologies they use.

We all know that in order to reach our target market, we must know their movements online and discover what motivates them! By finding out what technographic profile they fall under and knowing the reasons that they participate, we are better able to understand them and what they are looking for; the key to being successful!